Chen Shui-bian (ch.: 陳水扁, pinyin: Chén Shuǐbiǎn, Wade-Giles: Ch'en Shui-pien; Taiwanese: Tân Chúi-píⁿ) (born 9th Month, 1950), Taiwanese politician, has been the President of the Republic of China since May 20, 2000. He is also Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence. His is colloquially and affectionately referred to as A-bian (阿扁; Ābiǎn; or Taiwanese A-píⁿ--a).
Early years
Unlike most of his political opponents, Chen came from very humble background. Chen was born to an improvished tenant farming family in Kuantien Township of Tainan County in late 1950 but was not formally issued a birth certificate until February 18, 1951 because of doubts that he would survive.
Chen excelled in academics, ranking at the top of his class from elementary school through college. In June 1969, he earned the second highest score in the nationwide College Entrance Examination and was admitted to the National Taiwan University. Initially a business administration major, he switched to law in his first year and became editor of the law review. He passed the bar exams before the completion of his junior year with the highest score, earning him the distinction of being Taiwan's youngest lawyer. He graduated in 1974 with a LL.B. in commercial law.
In 1975, he married Wu Shu-chen, the daughter of a physician. The couple eventually had a daughter and son.
From 1976 to 1989, Chen was a partner in Formosa International Marine and Commercial Law, where he specialized in maritime insurance and held the firm's portfolio for Evergreen Marine.
Entrance into politics
Chen became involved in politics in 1980 when he defended the participants of the Kaohsiung Incident against a military court. While his client Huang Hsin-chieh, the leading opposition dissident, and seven co-defendants, including his future Vice President Annette Lu, were all found guilty, Chen gained notoriety for his forceful and colorful arguments. He has stated that it was during this period that he realized the unfairness of the political system in Taiwan and became politically active as a member of the Tangwai movement.
Chen won a seat in the Taipei City Council as a dangwai candidate in 1981 and served until 1985. In 1984, he founded the pro-opposition Civil Servant Public Policy Research Association, which published a magazine called Neo-Formosa.
On January 12, 1985, Chen was sentenced to a year in prison for libel, when, as editor of a Neo-Formosa magazine, he printed an article critical of KMT Legislator Elmer Feng. As he was appealing the sentence, he returned to Tainan to run for county magistrate in November 1985. Three days after losing the election, his wife, Wu Shu-chen was hit by a truck as they were thanking their supporters, which left her paralyzed from the waist down. Some in Taiwan believed this was part of a government campaign to intimidate him.
Chen lost his appeal in May 1986 and began serving his eight months in the Tucheng Penitentiary along with along with Huang Tien-fu and Lee Yi-yang, two other defendants in the same case. While he was in prison, his wife campaigned and was elected to the Legislative Yuan. Upon his release, Chen served as her legislative assistant and practiced law.
In 1989, Chen was elected to the Legislative Yuan and served as the executive director of the Democratic Progressive Party Congress. With the support of some KMT colleagues, Chen was also elected convener of the National Defense Committee. He was instrumental in laying out and moderating many of the DPP's positions on Taiwanese independence, including the four ifs. He was reelected to another three year term in 1992, but resigned in two years to become mayor.
Mayor of Taipei
Chen was elected as the mayor of Taipei in 1994, largely as the result of a vote split between the highly unpopular Kuomintang (KMT) incumbent and the KMT-spin-off New Party (NP) candidate Chao Shaokong. Unable to find experienced bureaucrats from his own party, Chen and his inner circle of of young law school graduates retained many of the KMT administrators and delegated considerable authority.
During his term, Chen received accolades for his campaigns to run illegal gambling and prostitution rackets out of Taipei. He levied large fines on polluters and reformed public works contracts. Chen renamed many of the roads in Taipei, most notably the road which runs between KMT Headquarters to the Presidential Palace from "Chieh-shou Road" (介壽路 jiè shòu lù) (Long Live Chiang Kai-shek) to "Ketagalan Avenue" (凱達格蘭大道) in an effort to acknowledge the aboriginal people of the Taipei basin. Chen also made highly publicized evictions of longtime KMT squatters on municipal land, and ordered Chiang Wei-kuo's estate demolished.
Despite receiving more votes both in absolute and in percentage terms than his 1994 campaign, Chen lost this position in 1998 to the KMT's rising star Ma Ying-jeou in large part because the KMT was able to get the support of New Party supporters.
Presidency
In an election eerily similar to Taipei's in 1994, Chen won the 2000 presidential election with only 39% of the vote as a result of a split of factions within the Kuomintang, when James Soong (later, leader of the People First Party) ran for the presidency as an independent against the party nominee Lien Chan.
Although a strong advocate of Taiwan independence, Chen moderated his independence stance during his campaign and repeatedly stated during his campaign and in his inaugural speech in May 2000, he stated a policy known as the Four Noes and One Without that as long as the People's Republic of China does not attack Taiwan, he would never declare independence. He has also acknowledged the symbols of the Republic of China such as its flag and Double Tenth Day.
However, during his tenure images of Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Ching-kuo (and to a lesser degree Sun Yat-sen) have disappeared from public buildings. The word "TAIWAN" is now printed on new ROC passports. Also continuing a trend from the previous administration, the Education Ministry has revised the school curriculum to be more Taiwan-centered. Government websites have also tended to promote the notion that China is synonymous with the PRC and Taiwan is not part of China. The "Free China Press" has been renamed the Taiwan Press and Who's Who in the ROC has been renamed Who's Who in Taiwan. In January 2003, the Cabinet-level Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission was abolished and to replaced it by a newly-formed Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation. Though Chen has proposed talks with the PRC, relations remained deadlocked as Chen has refused to pledge to the One-China Policy, as required by the PRC for talks to begin.
In the summer of 2002, Chen became the chairman of the DPP. Many believe this violated Chen's campaign pledge to be less involved in party politics and to be a "president of all the people." Chen's administration ran into many problems, and its policies were constantly being blocked by the Pan-Blue Coalition-controlled legislature. Chen's move to halt construction of the Number Four Nuclear Power Facility crested a legislative meltdown and is widely seen as the end of Chen's attempts to face the pan-blue groups head on. On December 31, 2003, he signed a controversial referendum bill, which he had supported, but was heavily watered down by the pan-blue majority legislature. He instituted a referendum held on March 20, 2004 along with with the ROC presidential election, 2004.
Chen was shot in the stomach while campaigning in the city of Tainan on March 19, 2004, the day before polls opened. The bullet left a flesh wound that was 8 cm long and 2 cm deep and was found in his clothes. He left the hospital on the same day with 14 stitches. His Vice President Annette Lu was shot in the leg in the same incident. The shooting incident continues to be the center of much controversy. Since the incident, a large quantity of rumors, conspiracy theories, claims and counter-claims have been generated and propagated both on the Internet and in the Taiwanese media.
The following day, Chen narrowly won the election less than 30,000 votes out of 12.9 million votes counted. Both of his referendum proposals were invalidated due to low turnout. Lien Chan refused to concede and sued both for a recount and for a nullification of the outcome while Pan-Blue supporters held a week-long protest in from the presidential office as well as protests elsewhere in Taiwan.
On March 29, Chen claimed he had been given a mandate by his re-election to make Taiwan an "independent, sovereign country." He planned to hold a referendum in 2006 on a new constitution to be enacted upon the accession of the 12th-term president in May 2008. He assured that the new constitution would not address the issue of sovereignty.
On May 20, 2004, Chen was sworn in for his second term as President despite the fact that the High Court was yet to consider the recount. He pledged to "reconcile the deep divide" caused by the election and "unify the people of Taiwan" and called for dialogue to establish stability with the mainland. Having heard protests from pro-independence figures in Taiwan, he did not re-state the Four Noes and One Without, but re-affirmed the committments made in his first inaugural. He defended his proposals to change the constitution, but asked for "constitutional reform" to be approved by the National Assembly instead of calling for a referendum for an entirely new constitution. The KMT's headquarters, which faced the presidential palace where Chen was inaugurated, hung a sign that read "No truth, no president." Pan-Blue leaders boycotted the ceremony.
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| Preceded by: Lee Teng-hui |
President of the Republic of China | Succeeded by: -- |